


Co-existence

by MeganauraZX



Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X, Rockman ZX | Mega Man ZX
Genre: Big surprise at the end ;), Gen, Post-X8, Random human Ocs, Religion Mention, X is vegan heck yeah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-18 05:28:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29729028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeganauraZX/pseuds/MeganauraZX
Summary: The Maverick Hunters encounter a human family on their day off, and decide to spend some time with them.
Relationships: Implied XZero
Kudos: 8





	Co-existence

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to just post one of my fics in drafts bc I had it for so long and I was excited to get this out. My 3k fics are honestly my best work but sometimes I can barely hit it ahaha. Also if anyone worried I’m doing better now, and have a lot more stuff cooking. ;) hope you enjoy this piece.

It was a beautiful day. The Hunter Trio had decided to head to the park. They had no goal in mind, just relaxation. Though, not having a plan meant they were wandering aimlessly. 

“My legs are gonna give out if I walk anymore.” Axl collapsed dramatically on the pavement, falling to his knees, “It’s so hot.” 

The other two Hunters rolled their eyes, “You're a new gen Reploid which means you can take in more heat,” X said, “and you're not wearing armor, calm down drama queen.” 

“We’ve been walking for so long!” he whined.

“For like five minutes.” Zero stated, “God, I haven’t even been out much when it’s calm and I’m not even tired. Come on.” he pulled the young Hunter to his feet, straightening him, “We’ll find you a bench if you keep whining.”

“Alright I’ll - Hey what’s that?!” 

Before anyone could respond, a giant husky came running forward. It tackled X, causing him to fall down. 

“X!” Zero got into a fighting stance, letting go of Axl, who just looked down. The Blue Hunter was fine. The dog was rather friendly, licking his face. 

“You're a cute one.” he laughed, as he petted the dog, “I wonder where your owners are though.” 

“Excuse me!” 

Two human kids came before them, a girl and a boy, around the age of 4 and 5. Both gasped upon the scene,

“No way- It’s X!” 

“It is X!” 

“Oh?” X arose, still ruffling the dog’s fur, “Are you-WOW!” The two kids bear hugged his legs. 

“We love you X!” 

“You're the coolest!” 

_ Humans. Liking me?  _ X was famous around the world, but he never thought he’d be seen in a positive light. It seemed like with recent years humans and Reploids bonds were shattering, that most humans were beginning to hate Reploids. Yet, it seemed to not be the case, at least for him. 

“Looks like you got some little fans, X.” Zero commented, smiling calmly. The two kids turned their attention towards the Red Hunter,

“Oh my gosh! You’re Zero!” 

“You're also so cool!”

"Don’t need to tell me twice.” he flipped his ponytail in front of him, trying to make a cool look. 

“Please! I’m the coolest one here.” Axl pushed Zero aside, placing his hands on his hips. He smirked at the kids, “Heya. Want an autograph from the one and only?” 

The two siblings looked at each other, then looked back at Axl, “Who are you?” 

“Are you some lame sidekick?” 

Axl became defensive after that, “L-Lame? Sidekick? I’m- I’m Axl! I helped these guys in the Red Alert and Jakob incident! Don’t you-” 

“Alice! Vince!” a feminine voice called, cutting off the Hunter. The mother ran forward, looking confused at the scene, “Kids, why are you hugging strangers? You were supposed to just get Rush and come back.” 

“Mommy it’s X!” 

“And Zero too! It’s really them!”

The mother looked at the three Reploids, and frowned, “Oh I’m so sorry for bothering you all.”

“Don’t worry about it.” X put his hand up, “We weren’t doing anything anyways. Just went out on a day off.” 

“I’m Landia.” the mother stuck her hand out, X shook it politely. 

“Nice to meet you.” he smiled.

“We were having a picnic when little Rush ran off.” she eyed the dog, who just looked at her innocently, “Come on kids, we best head back.” 

The kids were clinging onto Zero, “But can they come with us?” Vince pleaded, making puppy dog eyes. 

“Please Mommy.” Alice joined in, making the same expression. 

“Kids you know that-”

“No it’s fine.” X cut her off, “We really weren’t doing anything. Besides, I don’t think anyone will really notice it’s us. I mean, I’m surprised these kids even recognize me without my armor.” 

“Yeah, most people probably think you're bald.” Axl mumbled, laughing a bit to himself. The Blue Hunter shot him a look, but shrugged it off.

"Well,” Landia looked back at her kids, “If you insist. My husband will be at least happy to meet you. Come on now.” she walked back towards the grassy hill, with everyone else following. Alice and Vince clung onto Zero’s back, best resting on his shoulders. 

“You know about piggy back rides?” X asked him. 

"Nope. But I figured I carried them somehow. They really cling onto me.” he smiled. X had never seen him this relaxed, not when they're with other people, anyway. He usually only felt totally calm when it’s the two of them. The Blue Reploid couldn’t help but to feel happy for him. It was nice to see his partner finally loosening up after so long. 

They arrived at the picnic table. A grill was next to it, with the dad, flipping burgers and hot dogs.

“Daddy! Daddy!” Vince and Alice ran off of Zero, running up towards their father, “Look who’s here!” 

The father turned, his mouth falling open in shock, “No way - “ he set down his spatula, and walked towards X, “You're - you're X?” 

“Hello.” he said casually, though he felt a little uncomfortable with how close he was. 

“I didn’t think - I didn’t think I’d get to meet you!” he pulled the Reploid into a hug, squeezing him a bit. X was rather startled, but embraced it, “You saved me and my co-workers from a burning building. I always wanted to thank you.” 

He blushed a bit, “Well, that’s my job. Saving people that is. When we aren’t killing Reploids.” he murmured the last part, and the father seemingly didn’t hear. 

“But,” he let go of X, “sorry I startled you. I’m Richard.” 

“It’s fine. It’s nice to meet you too. Though I hope we didn’t interrupt your family outing.”

“X, you literally said yes to the kids' offer.” Zero said, which caused the Blue Reploid to be a little more flustered. 

“I mean I did but - well - uh-“ 

Richard gave him a pat on the back, “Don’t worry about it. The kids love you, we admire you, it’s all good. Besides this will be a good story to tell my grandkids.” he winked at the end part. 

“Ohhhh BURGERS!” Axl was now close to the grill, staring down at the food before him. 

“Oh, I forgot about that!” Richard went back to the grill, “Thankfully not burnt. Can’t tell you how many times that has happened.” 

“Can we have some?” Axl’s eyes were practically glittering, and his lips were quivering. 

“Axl, we can’t eat human food remember?” X stated.

“Not unless it has e-crystals in it!” Vince exclaimed, throwing up his hands. 

“Huh? Did you know we were coming or something? This is a little weird.”

“Well of course not,” Landia said, “but we’ve been making food for Reploids.”

X blinked, “You have?” 

"Yeah! We send food and clothes to donation units for Reploids!” Alice explained, “Mama and Papa really like Reploids and appreciate all the hard work they did for us, and we do too!” 

_ Humans, actually caring about Reploids. Am I hearing this right? _ X was completely baffled. The bonds between humans and Reploids were seemingly breaking, yet now it seemed like they were repairing themselves. Was it because of the lack of Maverick activity now? It had to be, but it was odd to him. 

“But wait a minute,” Zero then said, “Can’t humans not eat crystals? I thought they’d be unhealthy for them.”

“Nope. They're actually healthier compared to all the processed food we humans use to eat.” Richard said, preparing the plates on the table, “It probably won’t be long before restaurants just replace the processing with e-crystals, then both humans and Reploids can attend the same places. I think there’s a restaurant opening up soon like that, actually.” 

“Interesting.”

“Okay, so who wants what?” 

“Hot dogs please!” the children chimed. 

“I’ll take two hamburgers please!” Axl raised his hand up, “With onions, pickles, cheese and ketchup, all in that order.” 

“Just a hot dog.” Landia said.

“Yeah, hot dog for me too.” Zero added. 

“Uhh, do you have anything - non meat?” X said, looking away.

“We have some vegetables,” Richard pulled out a container, containing the food, “not sure if you could make a vegan burger out of this though.”

X looked down at the container, “I can try.”

They all proceeded to take a seat at the picnic table. The Hunters were sitting next to each other with the family across from them, each one patiently waiting for their plates. 

“Hey X.” Axl leaned over, in a low voice, “Why don’t you like meat?” 

“I’m vegan.” he whispered, “I don’t eat meat because I feel it’s wrong. Nothing living should be killed and eaten against its will.” 

“You're literally a Reploid who hunts down other Reploids.” 

“Who are criminals, and we don’t eat them. Plus you're a Hunter too.” 

“Never said I wasn’t.” 

“Then why argue?” he growled a bit at the end, but Zero pulled him back,

“Your plate is coming.” 

X’s plate was certainly out of place compared to everyone else’s, even if Axl and Richard were the only other ones eating hamburgers. His was using lettuce as a substitute for meat, but it didn’t bother him. It was his lifestyle, he ate how he wanted to eat. As X finished crafting his burger, he spied Vince’s hand out of the corner of his eye. He was placing E-cans for them. 

“Oh. Thank you.” he held up his can, looking at the covering. Blueberry flavor. 

“Our kids love handing out these to Reploids.” Richard stated, “They always have one on them.” 

“That’s sweet of them.” he took a sip of it, his sensors being filled with the sweet taste. It was odd that Reploids had smell and taste to begin with, seeing how those senses wouldn’t be useful in daily working activities but it made enjoying food simple. The little picnic was calm, aside from the kids bombarding the Hunters with questions. 

“Is your skin really fake and those blue parts your real skin?” 

“Where do you keep all your armors?” 

“Why do you mainly use a Buster when Zero has a cool sword?” 

“Why doesn’t Zero have armors like you?” 

“Is it true you actually sleep in a recharger?”

“Ok kids,” Landia grabbed both of them, “That’s enough questions for X. Why don’t you two go play with Rush?”

“And I’ll supervise!” Axl stood up. 

“You? Watching kids?” Zero raised a brow. 

“Hey I’m done eating I got nothing better to do. Besides. They’ll love me now ehehe.” he went to chase off the kids, the dog falling behind them, “I’m gonna get ya!” he yelled, Vince and Alice just laughed as they ran. 

“My, you sure have a good kid of your own.” Richard stated. 

The two Hunters shot the father a look, “Huh? He’s not -”

“He’s more like our little brother if anything.”

“He sure acts like a teenager.” Landia chuckled. 

“Well we can age, mentally.”

“How old would you say you are, X?”

“30. Zero is a bit older than me.” 

“Older? I still feel like I’m 28.” 

X blushed, feeling embarrassed again, “Oh-” 

“I guess you aged more than me due to me dying twice.” he laughed.

“Not funny, Zero.”

“I was wondering about that though.” X turned his attention to Richard, “Do you guys have an afterlife? Do you even believe in God?” he asked.

“I think that’s a bit of a personal question…” X trailed off, but the Red Hunter responded.

“I know of religion, but I don’t believe in God, and I’m unsure of an afterlife. But, I don’t think Reploid souls go away when we die, at least not for a long time.”

“You have souls?” 

He nodded, “Yeah. The reason why we can think freely isn’t just because of advanced programming, no. We have some sort of energy in us. It’s not a power core, it’s in our data. It helps us function. It makes us who we are. We weren’t all just programmed to think differently, that soul, our DNA soul as it’s called, made us different.”

“So you have DNA?” 

“Yeah. It’s not like regular human DNA though, but we have it alright. But I went off topic. To the question of death. When I died, both times, I was just in a black space. I was just floating. I couldn't feel anything. Yet I swore I saw things. I swore I saw other souls fly past me. Orbs and all. I think we just stay in a void until our energy is put back into a body like me or worse, absorbed by someone. Or maybe some of us don’t get to either and our energy burns us anyway. All I know is even if there’s a God, he definitely doesn’t want us machines.” 

Both adults frowned, looking rather sad, “Oh. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. We heard news that Reploids might have stable souls with newer models.” he looked over at Axl, “Maybe we will form our own afterlife as crazy as that sounds. Either way, me and X may be old but we’ve been upgraded, so we'll be fine when that time comes. So don’t worry.” 

“Well, that’s certainly a relief.” Landia said. 

“I can’t believe you were so calm about that.” X whispered.

“I’ve been becoming more relaxed you know, but of course you're still a worry wart.”

“Thanks for telling people that in public.” he grumbled. 

“Do you two ever get to relax? I assume you got some time off.”

“We have. Weekends are a regular thing, hence why we're out now.”

“What do you two usually do to relax?” 

“Meditate. X got really into that when he learned how to do it, so he taught me. Yet he still can’t stop worrying.” he smiled a bit at the end part.

“I’m less overwhelmed to say the least.” he breathed, “Zero is too.”

“That does make sense. Zero kinda looked like a yoga instructor to me with those clothes.”

“Yoga instructor? Hm, maybe I can ask the commander to add yoga sessions as a thing in the training lessons. Could be nice to get the rookies stretching a bit. Could add in meditation too so they're less stressed, it’s just training the mind after all.”

“Or you can get better clothes.” X mumbled. The two had a nice talk with the adults after that, asking about their lives. They said they had been actively fighting for Reploid rights, and finding shelters for Reploids. When the kids were done playing, they decided to leave. 

“Thanks for stopping by. We really enjoyed that lunch. Maybe we will see each other again?” 

“Hopefully. Thank you again.”

“Bye bye X and Zero!” 

“And you too Axl!” the kids chimed as they ran off.

The Hunters waved off the family, as they headed the other way down the park. 

“Man,” Axl stretched, “That was fun. Those kids totally like me.”

“That certainly was fun. Though I think we have time before we go back to Base.” X looked up at the sky. He could process the time by the sun's placement. It was 2:05. They wouldn’t need to be home until six. That left four hours in the park.

“Well, I’m gonna go explore. You two?” 

“I’m gonna sit down for awhile. Human interaction was a lot.” X said.

“Boring. See ya in an hour or two.” Axl ran off, heading down the long trail. X went over to a tree, Zero following. He took a breath as he settled himself, sitting on the grass, with his partner right next to him. 

“You seem stressed, is something wrong?” Zero asked. 

“That interaction we had,” he began, “got me thinking about my goal. Peace between humans and Reploids. It seems - more possible now. I thought humans wouldn’t be close to us, not after Jakob. But that project was scrapped, and the Maverick activity is low. I think humans are safer with us.” 

“We'll definitely have to fight again but, yeah. Your goal for world peace might happen soon.” Zero agreed.

“I just hope it isn’t - what I fear.” 

“Oh?” the Red Hunter perked up. 

“I had a dream.” X said vaguely, “It was probably just nothing but - I can’t say I didn’t see it happening.”

“What was it about?”

He turned to face his partner, “Can you close your eyes for me? We aren’t going to meditate but I want you to picture this with me.” Zero gave a simple nod, and closed his eyes. X did the same, “Picture. Tall buildings in your mind. It’s the future. Hundreds of years from now. The wars are over, the virus is gone, there’s nothing evil anymore.”

“I can picture that.”

“Now, picture a group of people. Both humans and Reploids. But imagine, the Reploids are actually aging. That there are Reploids who are kids and elderly, not just teens and young adults. Now, imagine the humans, they look exactly like the Reploids. They all have white devices on their ears, and have these navy tights, but that’s actually their skin. Which is what the Reploids’ structures look like. They look almost the same, only difference is Reploids have red triangles on their heads.” 

The picture developed in both of their minds. A city, full of a crowd of people. All looking nearly identical, except for say their faces and clothing. Most of them were walking together, holding hands, or just talking. Everyone looked happy. It was peaceful. 

“I. I see it.” Zero said, sounding entranced, “Everyone is finally at peace. This is what you wanted right?” 

“Of course not.” 

The blonde opened his eyes in confusion, “What?” 

The Blue Hunter kept his eyes shut, but continued, “I want peace, but not like this. Reploids having mortality doesn’t sound bad. No creature should be cursed with immortality, and I’d be more at peace if I died of old age. If I could age. But the humans,” he opened his eyes, “they shouldn’t become machines. They weren't  _ meant  _ to be machines. They shouldn’t be forced into that. What advantages would come from it other than them living longer? They would be forced to lose everything organic about themselves. The things that make them unique. That makes them beautiful. And it’s not even because it’s a shame Reploids can’t experience that. No, with the right building, we could become robotic humans. We  _ are  _ robotics humans to begin with, we just don’t have everything they have besides feelings, senses, breathing and thoughts. It’s just - it’s just -"

''It’s just you don’t want peace to be becoming one, you want it to be co-existence.” Zero finished the sentence for his partner.

“Yes, that’s exactly it. I don’t  _ want  _ us to become the same. We can live together, in peace. But, it doesn’t feel that way. And I think that dream is the only way we will ever be able obtain peace.” 

The warbot wrapped his arms around his partner, who embraced his touch, “X. I can’t confirm or deny that dream. I don’t want to say it was just a dream, because it could happen, and I don’t want to say live in the moment right now. Humans and Reploids living in peace is something that’s always been on your mind. It’s okay to be scared for the future. But, I think you should know this.” he looked down at his partner, “I’m sure everything will be fine in the end. Even if Reploids and humans become the same, I’m sure it’ll lead to a time where everyone can live together in peace. Maybe we will be there, maybe we won’t. But I know it’s all going to be fine.” 

X felt teary eyed, but didn’t cry. Instead, he kept holding onto his partner, looking out at the park. He was right. Even if there were more fights to be had, peace was going to happen. One day. One day, there would be a world where everyone could live together without any conflict. A world where everyone joined hands. A world where everyone set aside their differences. One day it would be real.***

And so, it came. The cyborg child caught their breath, holding onto their newly formed armor cannon. They were covered in armor, which wasn’t a usual thing for them. The child was filled with confusion. They weren’t expecting this to happen when merged with a mysterious device. But they weren’t alarmed. It was the only way the child could protect the people the large snake robot was going to attack. 

And X realized it too. He was the device after all. Being a tiny device was odd, but he had lost his old body, many years ago, becoming a Biometal: a device a human or Reploid of his choosing could wield his power. How fitting, that the child he merged with, was related to the same people he had met all those years ago. When he was worried about this future becoming real. Where humans and Reploids would be “forced” to be the same. He no longer despised it. The two greatly different species merging into one, was what needed to be done for the sake of the world. 

  
_ This is why humans and Reploids are the same now.  _ He thought.  _ So that we could keep fighting. The wars are over, but evil will always be present. It’s something we need to do, so that we can all live together. In peace. _


End file.
